Bridges to Grace

Archive for November, 2008

GAL. 4:9 …that you have come to be acquainted with and understand and know [the true] God, or rather to be understood and known by God..

Does He know you? Are you one of His children?

Matt. 7:21-23 Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.

22 Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name?

23 And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].

I never Knew you. Wow, I never want to hear those words. Does he know you and your work. It is not the fact that we do works or not, in Rev. 2 He told them that He knows their work, but it is that we do His will. The only way we can do His will is to put our faith and trust in what Jesus did at the Cross and we will do His will and His work.

As we confess Jesus as Lord, God abides in us and He will know us and we will know Him.

1 John 4:15 Anyone who confesses (acknowledges, owns) that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides (lives, makes His home) in him and he [abides, lives, makes his home] in God.

Matt. 10:32 Therefore, everyone who acknowledges Me before men and confesses Me [out of a state of oneness with Me], I will also acknowledge him before My Father Who is in heaven and confess [that I am abiding in] him.

As we acknowledge and confess Jesus, He makes us known to the Father.

Luke 12:8 And I tell you, Whoever declares openly [speaking out freely] and confesses that he is My worshiper and acknowledges Me before men, the Son of Man also will declare and confess and acknowledge him before the angels of God.

9 But he who disowns and denies and rejects and refuses to acknowledge Me before men will be disowned and denied and rejected and refused acknowledgment in the presence of the angels of God.

If we do not confess Him, we will be disowned, denied, and rejected. He will not know us and will say: “Depart from me I never knew you”.

You will be saved if:

Rom. 10:9-10 Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

10 For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation.

We do not want to hear those words, Depart from me I never knew you. We can be known of God. We want to be accepted of God.

1 Cor. 7:10 For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly [breeding and ending in death].

Godly grief and sorrow turns you to God. Worldly sorrow only brings hopelessness & leds to death. (Death also because it draws you away from God) This is why satan uses hopelessness 7 sorrow. He wants to draw you away from God.

Satan wants to take your hope away. Hope is a refuge! Hope is an anchor! We have a better hope (which draws us near to God, Heb. 7:19)!

Worldly grief attacks the character of God, His promise & His oath, Heb. 6:17-19. Satan knows if we doubt God’s promises we will have no strength. BUT those who run to God for refuge will have strength & strong encouragement to grasp & hold fast the hope appointed to us & that which is set before us. This hope reaches farther than we can imagine. This hope reaches the very throne of God.

1 Peter 5:7 Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.

He cares for us with affection and with a watchful eye. We are to cast our cares to Him.

Casting:

1) to cast, throw

2) throw down

3) to cast forward or before

4) to set down (with the suggestion of haste and want of care)

5) to throw to the ground, prostrate

“to throw, cast, hurl, to be cast down, prostrate,”

(This is from the Strongs & Vines concordances)

Make haste today to cast those cares on Him before they turn into ungodly Sorrow and turns you from God.

We are not without Hope. In time past we were without hope. As the world is without hope now.

Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

Do not listen to Satan as He attacks you and tries to keep down. He will try to give you so much sorrow and grief that you will turn from God. As though it is His fault that you are going through what you are going through. Satan is a liar and He will have his end soon.

God thinks about you! He has plans for you. These are good plans. He will give you hope.

Jer. 29:11 For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.